Episode 852
Tempest in a Twitter teapot Turns out a lot of people are all too happy to hand over their password to some unknown Web site just to find out if they're popular. Oh, people. When will you learn? Also, Microsoft Live gets a purpose, Valleywag loses its teeth, the BlackBerry Storm gets a release date, and we're all going to become (a) elves in the Wrath of the Lich King or (b) total buffsters on the new EA Sports Active Wii game. Stories BlackBerry Storm gets release date *Verizon announces Blackberry Storm release date, November 21st, $199 Microsoft Live becomes social network *Windows Live *And Now, Windows Live Is a Social Network The flap over Twitterrank and the social echo chamber *Twitterank Creator Speaks *Gullible Twitter users hand over their usernames and passwords - did you get your Twitterank yet?! End of a snarky era: Gawker shuts down Valleywag *End of a snarky era: Gawker shuts down Valleywag *What just happened at Valleywag? The FAQ Spam sees big nosedive as rogue ISP McColo knocked offline *Spam sees big nosedive as rogue ISP McColo knocked offline *Spam declines after hosting company shut-down EU court rejects Lego trade-mark *EU court rejects Lego trade-mark Worldwide Wrath of the Lich King launch nerfs credit card systems *Worldwide Wrath of the Lich King launch nerfs credit card systems Move over Wii Fit, EA announces EA Sports Active *Move over Wii Fit, EA announces EA Sports Active Korean geniuses invent lithium batteries with eight times the juice *Korean geniuses invent lithium batteries with eight times the juice Boot Windows Vista In Four Seconds *Boot Windows Vista In Four Seconds Voice Mail Anonymous:Google terrifies me! Rafa:On the Flu Dan:Hobobook Email Shouldn’t be mad at cbs Hey buzzards! First off love the show! This email is in response to the voice mail about online video. I wanted to point out that you shouldn’t be mad at cbs as all the shows they produce are online. If you will notice all the shows that warner brothers produces, ie “the mentalist” “cold case” and “without a trace” are not online anywhere. Same goes for the shows produced by abc studios for cbs- “criminal minds” and “ghost whisperer”. Instead of cbs you should be mad at the company that produces the show . Just my two cents. Stephen Charlotte, nc Maybe this explains why Maybe this explains why Apple’s Cinema Displays are so expensive: http://www.macobserver.com/article/2008/11/13.4.shtml Steve Jobs was just waiting for the verdict to come in before he released new models at a lower price. -Andres (Austin, TX) I see net books every day Hey JaMoTo This was regarding what Ken said in 851 I live downtown Chicago and I see net books every day around the Merchandise Mart and I actually saw one when I was Noodle Company this past weekend. So they’re out there I actually don’t have one but my laptop is close VGNS-360 Sony Vaio running Ubuntu 8.10 Thanks I love the show! Zach in Chicago the Buzz Phrase Index (BPI) Lee from Boston writes: Regarding Episode 851 and the discussion of the many press releases, pitches and the like that use the phrase “in these troubled times”. I’ve decided to put together a new economic metric, the Buzz Phrase Index (BPI) — I’ll be tracking the number of hits that a Google search for the phrase “in these troubled times” yields. We’ll see how this curve compares to the national and international economic situation over the next year or so. Details will be on my blog at http://www.tlex.com/wordpress A search on November 13, 2008 yielded 334,000 hits. So there you have it, wild. I’ve come across a few Netbooks (Asus EeePC’s) out here in the wilds of Dublin… The GameSoc lads here in DIT have all got laptops, at the moment four of them are equipped with XP-running EeePC’s. But that is tech-savvy crowd. However my uncle who is not at all tech-savvy bought an EeePC for my cousins. They’re running the EeePC linux operating system and really loving it. So there you have it, wild. -ANkh, the Computer Engineering Student, Dublin, Ireland. Touch base again Hurricane Electric: Hey! People have heard of us! You have execs from the company in the buzz army! Since I am a director for the company, I feel obligated to point out we are the 8th largest ISP in the world for IPv4 and the largest ISP for IPv6 in the world. Anyhow, just thought I would touch base again as an offer of assistance if you need anyone from the IP backbone industry… –Reid Director, East Coast Operations he.net